Document:
Harry S. Truman's statements after the dropping of the first atomic bomb
Source [link within this page]:
Public Papers of the Presidents, Harry S. Truman, 1945, pp. 197, 199.
Public Papers of the Presidents, Harry S. Truman, 1945, p. 212.
Harry S Truman to Senator Richard Russell 9th August 1945
Press Release of Harry S. Truman’s Letter to Hon. Tsukasa Nitoguri, Chairman of the Hiroshima City Council, 12th March 1958.
Harry S. Truman to Irv Kupcinet, Chicago Sun-Times, 5th August 1963
Available online at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Museum and Library
Comments:
This set of documents are all from Truman beginning in 1945 and ending as late as 1963. They represent his views on the reasons for dropping the atomic bombs. Notice the reasons stated. Do any change over time or are they consistent? Do some of the later documents provide us with more insights into Truman’s thinking? To what extent has his view been changed by hindsight or is he fairly consistent in telling us why he dropped the bombs
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Excerpt from first public statement by Harry S. Truman to the American people on the dropping of the first atomic bomb, 6th August 1945
The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold.
If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.
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Second Public Statement of Harry S. Truman on dropping the Atomic Bombs 9th August 1945
The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians. But that attack is only a warning of things to come. If Japan does not surrender, bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and, unfortunately, thousands of civilian lives will be lost.
Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.
We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan's power to make war. Only a Japanese surrender will stop us.
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This was a reply to the Senator who wanted Japan hit with more conventional as well as atomic bombs to force it to surrender.
I know that Japan is a terribly cruel and uncivilized nation in warfare but I can't bring myself to believe that, because they are beasts, we should ourselves act in the same manner.
For myself, I certainly regret the necessity of wiping out whole populations because of the 'pigheadedness' of the leaders of a nation and, for your information, I am not going to do it until it is absolutely necessary...
My object is to save as many American lives as possible but I also have a humane feeling for the women and children in Japan.
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In 1958 the Hiroshima City Council protested in a resolution against Truman’s televised comments on the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was Truman’s reply to the resolution.
Dear Mr. Chairman,
Your courteous letter, enclosing the resolution of the Hiroshima City Council, was highly appreciated. The feeling of the people of your city is easily understood, and I am not in any way offended by the resolution which their city council passed.
However, it becomes necessary for me to remind the City Council, and perhaps you also, of some historical events.
In 1941, while a peace conference was in progress in Washington between representatives of the Emperor of Japan and the Secretary of State of the United States, representing the President and the Government of the United States, a naval expedition of the Japanese Government approached the Hawaiian Islands, a territorial part of the United States, and bombed our Pearl Harbor Naval Base. It was done without provocation, without warning and without a declaration of war.
Thousands of young American sailors and civilians were murdered by this unwarranted and unheralded attack, which brought on the war between the people of Japan and the people of the United States. It was an unnecessary and terrible act.
The United States had always been a friend of Japan from the time our great Admiral succeeded in opening the door to friendly relations between Russia and Japan in the early 1900’s. The President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, intervened and brought about a peace settlement.
But in the 1930’s Japan joined the Axis Powers, and when the Hitler regime in Germany and Mussolini’s government in Italy were defeated, Japan was left alone.
From Potsdam in 1945, before Russia declared war on Japan, Great Britain, China and the United States issued an ultimatum suggesting that Japan join the Germans and Italians in surrender. This document, sent to the Japanese Government through Sweden and Switzerland, evoked only a very curt and discourteous reply.
Our military advisers had informed Prime Minister Churchill of Great Britain,
Generalissimo Chiang Kai - shek of China and the President of the United States that it would require at least a million and a half Allied soldiers to land in the Tokyo plain and on the south island of Japan.
On July 16, 1945, before the demand for Japan’s surrender was made, a successful demonstration of the greatest explosive force in the history of the world had been accomplished.
After a long conference with the Cabinet, the military commanders and Prime Minister Churchill, it was decided to drop the atomic bomb on two Japanese cities devoted to war and work for Japan. The two cities selected were Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
When Japan surrendered a few days after the bomb was ordered dropped, on August 6, 1945, the military estimated that at least a quarter of a million of the invasion forces against Japan and a quarter of a million Japanese had been spared complete destruction and that twice that many on each side would, otherwise, have been maimed for life.
As the executive who ordered the dropping of the bomb, I think the sacrifice of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was urgent and necessary for the prospective welfare of both Japan and the Allies.
The need for such a fateful decision, of course, never would have arisen, had we not been shot in the back by Japan at Pearl Harbor in December, 1941.
And in spite of that shot in the back, this country of ours, the United States of America, has been willing to help in every way the restoration of Japan as a great and prosperous nation.
Sincerely yours,
Harry S. Truman
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Harry S. Truman to Irv Kupcinet, Chicago Sun-Times, 5th August 1963
Dear Kup:
I appreciated most highly your column of July 30th, a copy of which you sent me.
I have been rather careful not to comment on the articles that have been written on the dropping of the bomb for the simple reason that the dropping of the bomb was completely and thoroughly explained in my Memoirs, and it was done to save 125,000 youngsters on the American side and 125,000 on the Japanese side from getting killed and that is what it did. It probably also saved a half million youngsters on both sides from being maimed for life.
You must always remember that people forget, as you said in your column, that the bombing of Pearl Harbor was done while we were at peace with Japan and trying our best to negotiate a treaty with them.
All you have to do is to go out and stand on the keel of the Battleship in Pearl Harbor with the 3,000 youngsters underneath it who had no chance whatever of saving their lives. That is true of two or three other battleships that were sunk in Pearl Harbor. Altogether, there were between 3,000 and 6,000 youngsters killed at that time without any declaration of war. It was plain murder.
I knew what I was doing when I stopped the war that would have killed a half million youngsters on both sides if those bombs had not been dropped. I have no regrets and, under the same circumstances, I would do it again - and this letter is not confidential.
Sincerely yours,
Harry Truman